Here are some things you need to know before you start reading the actual fic since its pretty AU.

In my little universe ...

- AJ is still alive. He never kidnapped Michael. Michael is un-SORAsed so at the opening of this story, he is 14 years old. AJ is married to Julia Barrett and they have a son named Trey.

- Jason and Sam are not married and never have been or will be in this universe. After the revelation that Jason was Jake's biological father, they ended things although they are on amicable terms now.

- Jake is dead per canon though the driver turned out to be not Luke, but instead the nefarious Lisa Niles who is now rotting in jail.

- Keesha is (technically) still married to a powerful businessman named Damon Price but she left him some months ago because frankly, he is an evil bastard.

- There is no Courtney Matthews in this universe. So Sonny has no sister that we know of. The reason I ditched her is because I am writing in very small scenes with PC's Courtney KANELOS and I thought two blonde Courtneys would just be too hard to read lol

Other events have changed a lot in my AU universe but that's all you really need to know for now. Happy reading!

Author's Chapter Notes:

Let me know if this is any good, please! lol

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Chapter 1: A Chance Meeting

Jason Morgan never relished going to the Quartermaine mansion. In fact, he stayed as far away from the place as he possibly could. All the family ever did anyway was fight over petty little nothings, back stab each other, and basically pressure him to be someone he simply wasn’t anymore and hadn’t been in over a decade and a half. They never changed. AJ still binge-drank like crazy despite having a little toddler son running around underfoot; Edward never stopped meddling and bellowing; Tracy never stopped scheming and harping and looking down on people; and Monica - well, she never stopped looking at him like she missed him; missed him the way he was before his accident. She missed her son Jason Quartermaine. He knew she loved him now but she had worshiped the boy he used to be and in some ways, she clearly resented the man he was now.

The only Quartermaine Jason truly got along with was Emily and she was technically a Quartermaine no more. Just two months ago, she had thrown caution to the wind and married the town’s biggest player, Patrick Drake. Jason had warned Patrick before the ceremony in no uncertain terms that he was not to ever break Emily’s heart and so far, he hadn’t. But it was early yet and Jason was still skeptical after hearing the stories of how Patrick had bunkered in down in nearly every single woman’s bed since coming to Port Charles. And some not-so-single women’s beds as well.

Jason sighed as he pulled his bike to a stop outside the back gate, again thinking how much he hated this place. But in all honesty, he had no choice in coming here today. He needed to hideout until money-grubbing, man-hunting Courtney Kanelos lost the scent of him. She had literally followed him all across town in her Civic until he grew tired of it and drove his Harley through a tight, thorny path in the woods to be free of her. The path naturally ended at his family in blood only’s property so he had decided he would hole up here until Courtney found him again and he had to move on to still higher ground. He had tried very nicely telling the blonde that he wasn’t interested in a relationship with her but she had not backed down. He had then tried telling her rather bluntly that he wasn’t interested and she still hadn’t kept her distance. She was relentless in a way not even his best friend Carly could comprehend. In fact, the two women had gotten into more than one knock-down drag out fight over Courtney’s tenacious pursuit of Jason.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he turned off the motorcycle’s engine and kicked the stand into place. He then walked towards the main house, wondering which of his estranged relatives he would encounter first and which one would end up making him feel that facing Courtney was a slightly more tolerable fate. He hoped Emily would be visiting today but he had a feeling, he wouldn’t be that lucky.

He was walking towards the back patio door when he heard what sounded like wheezing coming from some distance away. He instinctively paused in his tracks and tilted his head towards the direction the sound was coming from.

Soon enough, he spotted a chocolate-skinned boy of about eight or nine years hurrying through the rose garden, headed for the back door Jason had been about to stop through. The boy was not wheezing and the only sign of distress was in his dark eyes as he raced inside. Soon enough he started screaming, “Mom, Mom!Mel’s having one of her attacks again!”

Jason overheard that and immediately took off looking for this “Mel”, trying to gauge where exactly she was. As he rounded a corner, he spotted a slight girl, probably no more than twelve years in age, leaving heavily against the wall of the boathouse, using her left hand as a brace to keep herself upright while the other hand clutched her chest.

Jason hurried to her side and instinctively reached out and grasped her arm lightly. “Hey, you’re going to be okay. I’m going to take you inside and find someone to help you."

He tried to think about just how he was going to get her into the house - especially with the way she was looking at him distrustfully - and finally decided he was just going to have to carry her, whether she liked it or not. She was in no condition to walk herself or even protest.

“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you but I need to get you inside right now,” he said and scooped her up into his arms. Her lean legs dangled loose over his biceps as he broke into a sprint towards the mansion. She was practically feather light in his grasp. He felt an odd, inexplicable connection to her. He could never have verbalized it or even explained it to himself, but something inside of him told him that he had to make sure this girl was safe.

By the time he had reached the door of the mansion, Quartermaines and household staff members alike were assembled in the living room. He pushed his way through the throng just in time to see a familiar face on the other side of the room burst through the crowd of worried onlookers. All he could think to say was one thing:

“Keesha ...”

His voice came out sounding a bit awed and breathless even to his own ears but he told himself he was just breathless from running so fast.

Keesha’s dark eyes held his for the briefest of seconds before she focused them on her daughter. She gestured to the grand leather sofa and Jason lightly set the girl down on it. There was soon a flurry of activity as the doctors in the family descended upon the group, pushing a worried Jason to the back of the room where he could barely see anything that was going on.

XoXoXo

Jason knew the young girl was going to be okay when everyone began clearing out of the living room about twenty minutes later. They had seen "the show" and were apparently bored now. The little girl would be just fine. Jason himself was very glad.

His eyes drifted back to Keesha who was talking to her daughter in dulcet tones. “You know if you’re feeling out of breath, honey, you need to sit down and rest. You also need to keep your inhaler in your pocket and -”

The little girl nodded and leaned into her mother, silencing her. “I know, I know. I won’t do that again.”

“I hope not. You scared your little brother half to death.” She looked at the boy who was hovering in the door way looking on nervously. She patted the seat next to her and he scurried over. “Its okay, Thomas, our Melanie is just fine.”

“Yeah, I’ll live to see another day,” Melanie said facetiously and her mother just shook her head before finally turning to look at Jason, piercing him somewhere down deep with the emotion in her eyes.

“Thanks to Jason, you’re okay now,” she said. She turned back to look at Melanie. “Don’t you have something to say?”

Melanie obediently turned around on the sofa to look at Jason. Her eyes were clear and bright as she said, “Thanks. I don’t even know who you are but thanks.”

“Jason is ...” Keesha titled her head, seeming to think over what she was going to say. She tucked a strand of ever-curly black hair behind her ear, a nervous habit he remembered her having whenever they spent any time together after their breakup. He hadn’t been able to remember loving her back then but he still remembered the quiet things about her that made her who she was.

Keesha finally said, “Jason is Edward’s grandson and an old friend of our family’s.”

Jason was oddly, unnecessarily, and inexplicably disappointed by Keesha’s description of him. He watched her for a moment before chiming in, “Yeah, your mom and I are just old friends...”

“Oh come on, little brother, be honest here. You and Keesha were a lot more than friends, a helluva lot more.”

Jason shook his head as AJ walked - or rather, stumbled into the room. A half-empty tumbler of bourbon was clutched in his fist. “AJ,” Jason said in tone that held intense warning. “Drop it.”

AJ grinned cockily, knowing he had everyone’s full attention now.

“Kids, you have to know - Jason isn’t telling you the whole story.”

“Shut up, AJ,” Jason bit out.

AJ smirked at him. “Oh come on, Jason, don’t you want them to know? Don’t you want them to fawn all over your poor brain-damaged self like everyone else does? Don’t they have a right to know that you loved their mother until you forgot all about her after I drove you headfirst into a tree? I wouldn’t think you would want to pass up the chance to be martyred in their young eyes as you are in the rest of the world’s.”

Jason could have and would have punched his brother but the children were watching, their eyes now wide and full of questions. They both turned to look at their mom, curious to hear how she would respond to AJ’s revelations. Jason, in spite of himself, was curious about the very same thing.

His eyes came to rest on Keesha once again. She licked her full, bee-stung lips nervously. Another oddly endearing habit of hers. He suddenly remembered the way those lips of hers had felt on his neck years ago, the way they had tasted on his own, the night they said goodbye for what he believed was the very last time.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.